In this article I am going to ask you to take shortcuts. In life and in Office.

I am going to ask you to beg, borrow, and steal. Or should I say – get inspired.

Because we are going to talk about templates; humanity’s greatest invention after the printing dye. Okay, kill that hyperbole. But templates are vital time-saving devices and you can use them for almost any situation in life. We called them “stencils” in school. We abuse them as “forms” when tax day comes calling. NASA uses them for everything from scientific and technical reports to project plans. You can bet there’s one there for reporting alien life forms, too.

Think of your business idea. Your great business idea needs an action plan. Create your own template to mirror business needs, use it to go to the market and secure funding. A custom template again, shows initiative and the thought you have put into it. It reflects the best practices.

You could become an influencer like Eric Ries with his “Lean Startup” effect on business templates like Business Model Canvas and Lean Canvas.

Think of your personal brand. Templates are a rage. They are also a sales tool. Create a template on a repetitive business process in your industry. It can be as simple as a sales invoice. Spread it around like nectar on social media and industry forums — it will get picked up.

E.g. As a writer or blogger, you can create a professional writing proposal template in PDF. A creative designer can showcase a portfolio template in PDF designs. A real estate agent can use a real-estate purchase offer template as a calling card.

No, really. Do it just to stretch the creative muscles. Do it because you have all the tools for it. And do it because no other available template fits your needs.

How to Make Your First PDF Template

PDF templates are supported across all devices and browsers, retaining the design of the layout. They are the most widely circulated document format.

You will have your own objective for a template. My goal was to create a template for recording my daily learning goals – What did I learn today?

An online search revealed many “study planners”, but none suited my unique need; a continuing journal of personal learning. So, it was time to create a custom template to meet my need. This is how my first template turned out.

To begin with your own template — look into your computer. You have all the tools you need. No need to shop, yet.

Tools Required:

Microsoft Word (or PowerPoint or Google Drive)

A pound of creative flair.

Personal Choice: Microsoft PowerPoint 2013.

The choice of tools depends on the final look of the template. Microsoft Word and PowerPoint both have the same tools. Similar steps can be followed in Microsoft Word 2013 to create a custom PDF template as well.

For graphics heavy templates, I prefer PowerPoint over Word for three reasons.

Apart from converting the slide into a PDF template, I can review my planner as a slideshow.

I can preview the template as a slideshow with more rigor, e.g. magnify in the Slideshow view.

The slide workspace (empty area around the slide) allows me to store stuff that I might want to use later. Convenient.

STEP 3: Prepare the Slide

A few preliminary steps before you start your slide work.

Go to Ribbon > View. Select Rulers, Gridlines, and Guides.

Gridlines and guides are important for lining up each element on the slide and relative to each other. Both are drawing “supports” and are not a part of the final file. Gridlines are fixed in their location on the slide. Any object that comes within a pixel’s breadth of one of these guidelines snaps to it.

You can move the Guides around (horizontal / vertical) and use it to check alignment of individual elements on the page. Activate the Grid and Guides from, open the dialog box from the little arrow in the Show group of the View tab.

Now select the Snap objects to grid check box and then adjust the grid spacing to the setting you want. To see the grid onscreen, select the Display grid on screen check box.

Finally, select the Display drawing guides on screen check box. Remember, you can move them around the slide by clicking and dragging them.

STEP 4: Start Creating…

This is where you have to fall back on your own creativity and the drawings tools PowerPoint or Microsoft Word offers. They are all easy to grasp and adequate for the task. Let me take you through three drawings to illustrate the ease of doing it in PowerPoint.

Grab the rotation handle and turn the shape 90 degrees clockwise. Size, drag and position it on the slide

# The Project – Obstacle – Plan Process.

The “project-obstacle-plan” diagram two-thirds down the template is a Smart Art graphic called “Basic Process.” As the name indicates, it is used to show a progression or sequential steps in a task, process, or workflow.

I repurposed that to depict the flow of a learning project idea. A project idea can face an “obstacle” (e.g. lack of tools or time). Every obstacle can be overcome with a plan (e.g. watching less TV).

The Smart Art graphic has been recolored with Shape Fill (None) and Shape Outline (Black) to the final form as seen in the template.

# The “Month Streak” Calendar.

The Month Streak is a visual display inspired from the Jerry Seinfeld’s “Don’t break the chain” method to stop procrastinating.

With PowerPoint you can use a Table (Ribbon > Insert > Insert Table) to create a monthly calendar. Then, use a Table style (Ribbon > Design > Table style) to give it another visual touch. PowerPoint gives you a Live Preview as you cycle through the styles.

Entering the dates is a manual chore though.

In short, designing your template means playing around with fonts, Shapes, SmartArt, and placement. You can combine two shapes to create your own unique bullets. For more visual kick, you can also insert pictures. I would advise against it as the final PDF template will be headed to a printer. Keep it simple.

But can’t you do it all in color?

Why not. But a black and white template saves printer ink. Also, if your knowledge of color theoryHow To Learn Color Theory In Less Than One HourHow To Learn Color Theory In Less Than One HourBasic knowledge of color theory can mean the difference between an "amateur" aesthetic and a "professional" one – and it really doesn't take long to learn.Read More sucks it could be another layer of unnecessary effort. Printed colors also look different from those on the screen as monitors use the RGB (red, green, blue) color model, which usually supports a wider spectrum of colors. Printers use the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) color model. CMYK can reproduce most — but not all — of the colors in the RGB color model.

STEP 5: Printing to PDF

The final step of converting your PowerPoint or Word document to a finished printable PDF template is a small hop.

Go to File > Export > Create PDF / XPS Document and click the button to save the file in a designated location. Check your printable PDF template with a PDF reader and then take a printout to verify the layout.

As you can see, creating a printable PDF template is easy. Making an editable PDF template is slightly more complicated because you have to use a paid tool like Adobe Acrobat Pro DC to create fillable form fields. The user can then enter information into the template with the free Adobe Reader which recognizes the fillable fields.

But all is not lost for us freebie hunting cheapskates just yet. Here’s a quick and dirty workaround for editing the PDF template we created.

Tell Us Your Ideas for Custom PDF Templates

As we see above, creating a template is easy. It is the idea and the layout that needs planning. But there is inspiration all around us today. It could be a simple to-do checklist. Maybe, it is a template for a business plan. Or it could be a pattern that helps you trace out a sexy tattoo.

What is your idea for a PDF template? Are you searching for a template you haven’t found, yet? Reach out in the comments.

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John

November 26, 2016 at 10:07 pm

I'm a contractor/handyman, I would like to make a template that I can use like an abbreviated contract .
Place holders to insert customers contact information, another for the scope of work, terms of the proposal, date, exclusions, customers signature with date. This would need to work with may tablet and smart phone

Sounds simple enough. I am sure you have it plotted it out on paper. After that, it's just about using a digital tool to lay it out and print it out as a PDF template. PDF will work on any device. But to enter or edit the data, you will need a PDF editor of course.

Saikat is a techno-adventurer in a writer's garb. When he is not scouring the net for tech news, you can catch him looking for life hacks and learning tidbits. You can find him on LinkedIn & Twitter watching over the world.